Wang Kuang-chi, who died in 1936, was a philosopher of the May Fourth Movement and established the Young Chinese Academic Association in 1919. It was patterned after the Young Italy organization established by Mazzini in 1831. In the declaration, Wang said: "The Young Chinese Academic Association is organized for the benefit of all youths of China. The association sets as its goal the promotion of academic studies and social work for the purpose of eliminating social evils. Prabmatism shall be the rule of conduct and social reform the common goal of its members."
The first article of the declaration states: "The Young Chinese Academic Association shall conduct social activities scientifically to create a young China."
In Wang Kuang-chi's early writings we find love for the simplicity of the ancients, dislike of political struggle and enthusiasm for social work and reform. He hoped to create a new China through scientific, cultural, educational and industrial endeavors.
Wang was a member of the May Fourth Movement but wanted to renovate traditional culture and philosophy, not destroy them. He said all political philosophies and Western systems of government should be studied before formulating a political philosophy for China. He campaigned against a Western governmental system for China.
Wang Kuang-chi tried to expand his Young Chinese Academic Association into a Chinese nationalist restoration movement. In 1924, Wang wrote the Young China Movement. He emphasized personal education and moral conduct to establish a healthy society before political reformation. He enthusiastically supported Western scientific methods in re-evaluating and renovating Chinese culture. He said: "The roots of China's evils are found in its society and its people. China's political upheavals are the direct result of her unhealthy society."
Wang Kuang-chi translated 16 books on music. He introduced Western musicology to China. His works included Evolution of European Music, Western Music and Song, Western Music and Drama and A Guide to Western Musical Instruments. He also wrote on Chinese and comparative music in such works as Studies in China's Ancient Opera, A History of Chinese Music and Music of Orientals.
A History of Chinese Music set up guidelines for scientific research into Chinese traditions. Wang wrote: "The development of Chinese music has been relatively slow compared to that of Western music. Music is like literature. It must be built upon the national characteristic of the people. Western music cannot become Chinese. Only through renovation of Chinese music can our musical heritage and tradition be saved. Today's music education in China stresses only Western music. With no Chinese music to train our young people, they will become Oriental musicians versed in Western music. The West has already enough talented musicians. China today needs more music of its own."
Wang wanted to preserve the national heritage, awaken the national conscience and formulate an independent nationalistic philosophy. He also wanted to create a Chinese national music. He wrote: "Western sinologists have looked lightly upon modern Chinese scholars, saying they lack the methods of scholarship. China has lost the capability to renovate its own traditions. Westerners must help the Chinese evaluate and renovate their culture."
China today is in the midst of a cultural renaissance movement. Wang Kuang-chi's words are to be remembered. - <b>Kuo Cheng-chao</b>
Tsang Liu - Development of drama
Chinese drama is not Chinese opera or Peiping opera. It is drama in play form.
In 1907, Chinese students in Japan under the leadership of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who was advocating the overthrow of the Manchus, started a drama workshop as a propaganda unit. It was named the Chun Liu Club. Among the initiators were Ouyang Yu-ching, Cheng Shao-ku, Lee Shu and Lu Ching-joh. Tile workshop's first performance was Camille by Dumas. Performances of other plays followed.
The Chun Liu Club moved to China in 1912 when the Republic of China was founded by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. The club was financed by such revolutionaries as Chang Chin-kiang, Lee Shih-cheng, Chen Ying shih and presented plays by such Chinese scholars as Wu Chih-huei, Yeh Tzu-chang and Tai Li-tao. Drama opened the Chinese mind to Western culture and stimulated national sentiments, These plays were called "new drama."
The Chun Liu Club was disbanded when its president, Lu Ching-joh, died. However, the new drama was popular up to the eve of the May Fourth Movement of 1919. It centered around nationalism and dramatized the need for social reform until it deteriorated into vulgarity.
The May Fourth Movement brought liberalism into Chinese literature. Writers began to search for new ideas. The movement gave birth to the so-called "hua chu" or popular plays and to the new drama without set lines. Plays began to compete with the renovated classical Peiping opera, which was criticized by such May Fourth 'Writers as Liu Fu, Fu Shih-nien, Chien Hsuen-tung and Chou Tzuo-jen in the New Youth and the New Wave magazines. Their criticism are summarized by Wang Ping-lin:
"Peiping opera is lifeless and formalized. Its acting is symbolic and abstract. It cannot portray real life situations. Costumes and settings are out of date. Singing and narration are limited to a set pattern and rhythm. Words, sentences and songs are classical and lack variety and change. New ideas and expression, are difficult to incorporate into the archaic language. Female roles are played by men and vice versa. This is unnatural. Peiping opera employs only two major melodies and is accompanied by only a few instruments. Unlike Western opera, the musical accompaniment of Peiping opera is simple and monotonous. Peiping opera stories lack meaningful content. The opera is not suited to modem stories."
In spite of these criticisms, Peiping opera survived. Hsu Ping-ping, Shao Piao-ping, Chang Ku-tze and the so-called "week-end writers" were supporters and defenders of Peiping opera, which they said had been improved but still represented Chinese tradition and culture. At the height of the rivalry between advocates of Peiping opera and of modern drama, Sung Chun-fong advocated a reformation in Chinese opera. Originally a supporter of modern plays, he pointed out that the new drama had not reached maturity. Writers and defenders of the new drama spoke of dramatic theories and ideals but few were able to prove their merit on stage and none was able to show that the new drama had higher artist value than classical Chinese opera. If Peiping opera were abolished, this would hinder rather than help the new drama movement.
Dr. Hu Shih was the first to advocate westernization of Chinese drama. He pointed out that Western plays were centered on social problems, while symbolic plays were centered upon exaltation of the performing art.
A follower of Ibsen, Hu said that only through individualism could society shake off the evils of tradition. Dramas such as Hedda Gabler were introduced to China by Hu Shill. Ibsen individualism became the central philosophy of the May Fourth Movement and Hedda Gabler become the favorite of Chinese youth, Other Ibsen plays translated into Chinese included An Enemy of the People, Pillars of Society and Ghosts. Many Chinese dramatists imitated Ibsen.
At the beginning of the May Fourth Movement, Chinese dramatists translated many Western works. However, Western dramatic style and ideology did not suit the taste of the general Chinese public. A new form of drama that was Chinese in character began to establish itself when Shen Yin-pin, Cheng Chen-tou, Ouyang Yu-chin, Hsung Fu-hsi, Chen Ta-pei and others, totaling 13, organized a Public Drama Society in May of 1921. Their first contribution was the publication of the monthly Drama. Although the society did not last long, it brought new ideas and theories to Chinese drama.
In 1922, Chen Ta-pei, Pu Pei-yin and others established in Peiping a Human Arts Drama Institute. This was China's first drama school. During its three years of existence, many new plays were staged.
The Literature Study Society and the Tsuang Chao She contributed to the new drama movement. Works published by Tsuang Chao She were anti-traditional and romantic in character. Such plays as Tien Han's A Night at the Coffee Shop, Before Lunch and Kuo Mo-juo's Three Traitorous Females were popular.
Starting in 1924, amateur drama workshops mushroomed all over China. Between 1925 and 1927, drama clubs flourished in South China. Hsiang Pei-liang and Ku Chung-chi started the Blood Flower Drama Club and became the leader in revolutionary and nationalistic dramas. Chu Hsiang-chen's Hsin Hai Drama Club gained fame with its presentation of The Dog's Dance and Hung Shen's Fu Tan Drama Club for its presentation of Sihano. The Peiping Art College added a department of drama and news papers took an interest in plays. In Canton, Ouyang Yu-chin and others established a Cantonese Drama Study Institute and presented Roar Chinal When Tien Han's Nan Kuo Drama Club was on tour in Canton, Chen Pei-chen, Chao Min-yi and other members began to move away from the dogma of art for art's sake. They formed the Modern Drama Club, which became popular with the public and college and university students.
In 1934, the Chinese Drama Traveling Troupe was established in Shanghai as China's first professional drama organization in China. Leading performers included Tang Kueh-chiu, Tang Jou-chin, Sun Min, Hung Po, Chiang Nan and Huang Ho. Plays included The Resurrection, The Sun Rises, Thunderstorm and The Proprietress.
In 1935, a National School of Drama was organized in Nanking. This school was to study comprehension of the drama by the Chinese masses, especially the farmers. The course was lengthened from two to three years in 1937, when the Chinese Stage Association was established in Nanking. The Association presented such plays as Tien Han's Song of the Spring Fields, Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, Chang Tao-fan's Self Salvation and Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. China's center of drama thus shifted from Shanghai to Nanking.
In Shantung province, Wang Pen-sheng started a "new opera" at the Provincial School of Drama. The Shantung Public Education Institute under Yen Tse-wu initiated an "educational drama movement." In Hopei, Hsiung Fu-hsi and Chen Chi-tze started a drama study committee to promote experimental farmers' drama.
Hsiung Fu-hsi said in his article on "An Experiment on Popularization of Drama": "China today has opened the way for popularization of drama. Who is today's general public of drama in China? The farmers are. More than 85 per cent of the Chinese population are farmers. China's new drama must be populated to suit their taste. The farmers must be educated and their psychology studied."
This marked the beginning of the- so-called "farmers' drama in China." In April of 1938, the Chinese Dramatists' Anti-Aggression League was established in Wuhan. The league united Chinese dramatists under the anti-Japanese banner.
Chinese drama today centers around themes of anti-Communism and human interest. -<b> Chen Ching-tze</b>
Issues and Studies-Opportunist Kuo Mo-jo
Kuo Mo-jo was born in Loshan county, Szechwan in 1891. His original name was Kuo Kai-chen. He first attended school in Chengtu. In 1912, he went to Japan on a government scholarship. He studied medicine at the Kyushu Imperial University and married a Japanese gill named Tomiko Sato (alias Anna). He returned home alone in 1920, Kuo had become interested in creative writing even while studying medicine in Japan. After returning to China, he abandoned his medical career and began literary work. In 1921 he founded the Creation Society in Shanghai with Tien Han and Yu Ta-fu. They published the Creation Quarterly and advocated literary romanticism in opposition to Lu Hsun's naturalism. While in Shanghai, Kuo also worked as editor-in-chief in the Taitung Book Co. and was dean of the College of Humanities at Hsueh Yi University, founded by the China Hsueh Yi Society.
Kuo's works included creative writing and translations. Among the translations were The Sorrows of Young Werther. His own poems included the Temptation of Death, Departure, Goddess and Shepherd's Sad Talk.
In 1925 Kuo Mo-jo left Shanghai for South China. He became dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Canton University but resigned the next year when a strike by faculty and students opposed his dismissal of a professor. No long afterward, with Chou En-lai's recommendation, Kuo was given a job as chief of the Propaganda Section, General Political Department of the National Revolutionary Army, under the direction of Teng Yen-tao. He was appointed director of the Kiangsi Branch Office of the Political Department when the National Revolutionary Army seized Nanchang. In July, 1927, after the National Revolutionary Army entered Wuhan, Kuo was transferred and promoted to Deputy director of the General Political Department.
After the Kuomintang's purge of he Chinese Communists beginning April 12, 1927, Kuo published two articles supporting the Chinese Communist Party and opposing the Kuomintang. He also took part in the Nanchang Uprising on August 1, 1927. When this failed, he fled with Ho Lung's troops to the south and reached Hongkong, where he wrote his memoirs under the pen name of Mai Ke-ang.
In 1928 he returned to Shanghai and re-established the Creation Society. He cooperated with the East Culture Bureau of the Comintern and began to advocate proletarian literature. He had to flee to Japan where he began to study Chinese ancient history and oracle bone inscriptions.
In 1930, Kuo returned to Shanghai and joined the Leftist Writers' Union, but he returned to Japan not long afterward. In 1932 he sent his works back to China for publication. These included Ten Years of tile Creation Society and The Study of Chinese Ancient Sociology.
When the Chinese Communist Party promised to cooperate in fighting the Japanese in 1937, Kuo returned to China.
In 1939 he was appointed director of the 3rd Propaganda Office in the Central Military Council. The office was abolished when the government moved to Chungking. Kuo retired from political life and resumed his literary career. He began to write plays important ones include Peacock's Call. Chu Yuan and the Flower of Brotherhood.
In 1944 Kuo went to the Soviet Union with Ting Hsi-lin at the invitation of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. After returning to Chungking, he attended the KMT-CCP Political Consultative Conference as a non partisan.
On the eve of the Chinese Communist seizure of the Chinese mainland in 1949, Kuo went to north China with Li Chi-shen and visited Mao Tse-tung. Kuo became an active Maoist.
Of the many positions Kuo has held, that of president of the (Red) China Academy of Sciences is the biggest. In April of 1952, when Kuo accepted a gold medal from the Russians, he said: "Stalin, Dear steel! [Stalin means steel in Russian] Eternal Sun! Because of you, the World has developed Marxism-Leninism. Because of you, a billion people have been liberated. Wish Grandpa Stalin good health!"
Kuo wrote many poems of adulation to Mao Tse-tung and Mao's wife, Chiang Ching. However, his flattery did not always succeed. He had to publish an article in the People's Daily of March 4, 1959, criticizing himself and declaring that he had misunderstood the real meaning of Mao's poem Farewell to the God of Plague.
On June 6, 1967, at the opening ceremony of the Symposium for Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Mao Tse-tung's Talks at the Forul1l on Literature and Art at Yenan. Sponsored by the Executive Bureau of the Afro-Asian Writers Association, Kuo recited a poem praising Chiang Ching and emphasizing his intention to learn from her. In Kuo's self-criticism made at the 38th meeting of the Standing Committee, National People's Congress, on April 14, 1966, Kuo said: "During the past few years I have never discontinued my writing and Translating. However, speaking strictly, according to today's standards, my works have no value at all. I cannot say that I don't have any responsibility for the evil wind blowing in literary and artistic circles. Therefore, I should learn very seriously from the workers, peasants and soldiers. If U.S. imperialists should come to attack us, I would certainly like to throw a couple of grenades at them." With this self-criticism, Kuo was able to sidestep the purges of the Maoists. Most of the writers who had been prolific in the 1930s were purged during the "cultural revolution." Opportunist Kuo Mo-jo was an exception.
In February of 1970, Kuo went to Katmandu as the special envoy of the Peiping regime to attend the wedding ceremony of Nepal's crown prince and then led "friendship missions" on visits to Nepal and Pakistan. The Maoists are using Kuo's experience on the international front work to lure neighboring Asian countries.